​N’Golo Kante of Chelsea has won the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year award for 2016-17, beating Eden Hazard, Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexis Sanchez.

26-year-old Chelsea FC midfielder, N’Golo Kante, has been voted the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) player of the year 2017.

The French international who has been central to Chelsea bid to win the Premier League, secured the most votes from his peers, seeing off competition from team-mate, Eden Hazard, Tottenham’s Harry Kane, Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Manchester United, Everton’s Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal.

Kante who was bought from Leicester for £32million in July and is on course to win back-to-back EPL, was presented with the award at the Grosvenor Hotel in London on Sunday evening.

According to Dailymail, he said: ‘To be chosen by the players to be player of the year means a lot to me. It means the world to be chosen and it’s been two beautiful seasons, one with Leicester, and we are in good form with Chelsea. To be player of the year, it’s a great honour.’

Kante poses on the stage with his accolade after a tremendous debut season in west London

While speaking on his move from Leicester to Stamford Bridge, Kante continued: ‘It’s a different type of playing, but with the manager, with the players, everything is easy, because we work a lot to be good in the games. It’s working very well.’

When asked about the influence of boss, Antonio Conte, he said: ‘He knows what he wants from the players.

‘He wants to win, and we work very, very, very hard in training for him. He put a winning mentality into the squad, and everyone wants to give their best for the team, and to make Chelsea win titles.’

The Blues are four points clear at the top of the Premier League and Paris-born Kante added: ‘We have to fight for six more games.’